The IT Europa 2021 predictions panel this week recognised the problems in trying to forecast with so many unknowns, so went back to first principles as a guide to succeeding in 2021. There is no doubt that the first half of the year will be demanding and it will be important to maintain morale and understanding, both internally and externally. The lessons learned in 2020 about good communication and staying effective should be incorporated into best practice.
Among the many issues discussed was technology, particularly AI and machine learning (ML): Chris Bunch, COO of Google’s largest independent European partner CTS: “On the issues of AI – part of the problem is that it gets mixed in with a lot of marketing hype: I think we will see the continuing development of machine learning, with people using the scale of computing that wasn’t available before to identify trends, predicts outcomes and solve problems. We are a bit away from true AI, but ML is taking off in a cross section of industries.”
Kyle Torres, in charge of channel accounts at Sophos says his business has put some emphasis on deep learning – “it is a subset and is working well for us. We are now incorporating it into products.” It means adding deep learning to identify abnormal behaviour.
Amelia Paro, running channel developments at ID Agent says “Bad actors can take anything and use it for bad purposes. ML and AI will be important going forward – we are going to see activities which require sophisticated tools to keep them out. Phishing defence tools are particularly important now there is no network edge.”
Naj Raja, general manager at Unitrends MSP says that his company has been using ML to look at large sets of data to work out what the best solutions. “MSPs have a tonne of data in their SOCs, RMM and PSA. There will be new companies and developers offering to take that data and create a plug-in that creates an easy way to digest that data,” he predicts.
Alex Ford IT Glue Sales Director EMEA agrees that learning from the issues of 2020 and the drive for efficiency, at the moment it is all about automation. “There is some interesting stuff in AI being done, and it will be worth watching.”
Mark Winter, Rapidfire Tools Sales VP says we will need to be able to analyse more quickly and especially in security – “internal threat detection will use ML to look for patters and anomalies on the network.”
AI and ML have been conflated, says Kelvin Murray, threat research analyst. “At Webroot we have some 70 million sensors being analysed and that is starting to inform on trends.” Criminals are certainly looking at AI, he warns. The malware delivery service Emotet, for example uses ML to reach more phishing targets. “We’re seeing AI impersonating voices; we expect faces to follow. It will be at the cutting edge of the threats.”
Don Randall, former head of security, Bank of England: “As an end-user the AI has to ink the threat intelligence. We want to to have all the information. You have to look at the business and plan for three years ahead – where do you want all the information. I don’t just want to know about the abnormalities, I want to know about the abnormal abnormalities. And the way you get to those is through the threat intelligence, through ML and the security centre.
So how to ensure survival and growth in 2021 – unsurprisingly, for the panel it was about continuing to differentiate, particularly in the MSP market.
Chris Bunch’s differentiation advice is to learn the art of the consultative sell. “Too often channels turn up with a suitcase of products, where what they need to do is understand the customer and the business. You can find some quite small organisations as customers who have a few people but large revenues – get out of the habit of talking about what your own business does.”
Alex Ford: “The end of year is a good time to think about this aspect of differentiating the business. You can shout about speeds and feeds, but the best thing is to talk to customers and find out what makes the relationships work. Ask your customers why they are with you and what they. it is hard to take that step back to look at the wider picture”.
Mark Winter says channels can differentiate with a consultative sell, but MSPs will be working with security and compliance and they need to take a hard look at how they are delivering. “There are good tools sets that do all that, but channels need to have a stack that works with them.”
The consultative approach is something we use as a differentiator, says Kyle Torres, plus the flexibility with a diverse portfolio. “The MSPs that are going bust and failing because their customers are failing. We must be flexible and stay agile with secure managed environments. Take the time to think less about project work, but review the remote working and implement MFA”. Re-inventory the work you have done already is his advice.
There is too much noise in the market, according to Naj Raza. “You have to give the content that people want. MSPs want to know how to sell and market. We’re doing workshops on social media and managing sales pipelines. It is not clear cut, however and depends on which verticals.”
Kelvin Murray says “Listen to the customer - security is a holistic business. One of the differentiators is that there is a huge gap between what cybercrime gets reported and what happens. Ransomware is a huge global crisis. We have not been doing a good enough job on talking about how much money is being made in the crime sector.”
Amelia Paro: “There is a paradigm shift in that a lot of the focus has been on the end-user doing the wrong thing. To us the focus should be on helping MSPs to focus on the customers doing it right. More focus on the herd mentality doing it right and praising that. MSPs talking to business owners is a different conversation.”
So stay on top of the right messaging and be aware of the pressures in 2021. As Don Randall says: ”Look at your people and staff, particularly for the first half of the year – there will be massive uncertainty in 2021 – unemployment, extra pressures, economic decline. But when your people are out talking to us as customers, they should have confidence, believe in the products and organisation – A bit of hugging, when we are allowed, will go a long way!”
To watch the full panel debate go to the download here: The full IT Europa Predictions 2021 feature with extra research, interviews and ideas will appear next month.
